Teachers hit DepEd over one-week virtual training

MANILA, Philippines — Public school teachers yesterday bewailed the Department of Education (DepEd)’s conduct of a one-week virtual training for mentors before the opening of remote learning in public schools on Sept. 13.

The Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC), an umbrella organization of public school teachers’ associations, said the virtual in-service training (VINSET) series which began yesterday and will end on Sept. 3 could have been given to public school teachers to rest and recharge for another school year of remote learning.

Olivia de Guzman, TDC national vice chair, said teachers need a break after the extremely busy school year last year, when mentors themselves went on crash training on remote learning in the months before the opening of classes on Oct. 5, 2020.

De Guzman pointed out that the VINSET had even been started yesterday, National Heroes’ Day holiday, robbing public school teachers of a holiday.

She said teachers also underwent continuous “in-service training” last school year which ended just last July 12 as DepEd made adjustments and improvements in the distance learning curriculum and strategies for public schools.

The VINSET training, taking up the whole afternoon in the five days from Aug. 30 to Sept. 3, was administered by the DepEd supposedly to prepare teachers for the opening of classes for school year 2021-2022.

“There are webinars in schools and in the school district and division levels. Has DepEd studied if these endless webinars are really helping teachers to be more productive? Does it really improve the quality of instruction of the teachers who undergo the webinars?” De Guzman asked.

Instead of administering the mandatory webinars, she said that DepEd should ensure that they provide public school teachers with the tools to allow them to deliver remote learning such as laptop computers and internet connectivity loads.